Trek trivia detail items -- do you know these?

Watch the bum's fingers in City on The Edge of Forever (actor John Harmon). He's missing the fourth finger on his right hand. But when we go in for the close up as he's playing with the phaser (just before he zaps himself out of existence), his hands magically show a full 10 digits.

Amok Time: Among the most severe glitches in this episode occurs in Spocks quarters as Kirk says "I haven't heard a word you've said" as the statue in Spock's bedroom in the background flames out -- the gel in the light has melted and there's a huge plume of smoke coming out of it.

You will recall, "Robert April" was one of the suggested names for the Captain of the Enterprise when TOS was first developed. Roddenberry also used the name Robert April for a character in a Have Gun Will Travel episode he wrote, season 2 ep 32, chaplain Robert April, of whom Paladin said "I respect him more than any man I ever met”.

And this isn't TOS, but the name William Riker probably comes from William Rice, the lead character of Roddenberry's first series The Lieutenant.

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I always thought it was just a twist on Willard Decker from TMP. The whole Riker/Troi romance scene where they first meet and then mention "not being able to say goodbye" was very similar to the Decker/Ilia scene.

^Yes, that too. Riker and Troi are a rehash of Decker and Ilia; indeed, Picard's elder-statesman mentor role to Riker was based on what Kirk's relationship to Decker was intended to be for Phase II. And Data is half based on Xon (unemotional being seeking to understand humanity) and half based on the title android from The Questor Tapes.

But William T. Rice, William T. Riker -- no way is that a coincidence, especially given how often Roddenberry recycled his ideas and character names. (William Rice's middle name was Tiberius.)

But William Rice, William Riker -- no way is that a coincidence, especially given how often Roddenberry recycled his ideas and character names.

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Like Khan Noonien Singh and Dr. Noonien Soong. I had read an article once, not sure if there was any truth to it or not, but supposedly Roddenberry had an old friend with a name similar to that. He lost touch with him and by using those names as characters, he was somehow hoping that his friend would notice it and get back in touch.

As it happens, back in my teens in the early '80s, I independently created my own character named Bill Rice -- the captain of the first FTL ship in my SF universe as it existed at the time. When I discovered that Roddenberry had created a character by that name, I was kind of freaked.

Hey Mars Weeps, I heard once that writers have to base their character names on something they know -- a derivatiive of a friend, relative, or something with which they are familiar, otherwise they risk being SUED by someone with that actual name (who the writer has no knowledge of) for defamation of character. Is that right?

But William Rice, William Riker -- no way is that a coincidence, especially given how often Roddenberry recycled his ideas and character names.

Click to expand...

Like Khan Noonien Singh and Dr. Noonien Soong. I had read an article once, not sure if there was any truth to it or not, but supposedly Roddenberry had an old friend with a name similar to that. He lost touch with him and by using those names as characters, he was somehow hoping that his friend would notice it and get back in touch.

Hey Mars Weeps, I heard once that writers have to base their character names on something they know -- a derivatiive of a friend, relative, or something with which they are familiar, otherwise they risk being SUED by someone with that actual name (who the writer has no knowledge of) for defamation of character. Is that right?

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I've been a professional writer for 15 years and nobody's ever told me I had to do that.

As a rule, in TV and movies, a character name is only off-limits if only one real person in the country has that name, or if someone very similar to the character (same profession or same city of residence, say) has that name. For instance, Scott Bakula's Enterprise character was changed from Jackson Archer to Jonathan Archer because there was only one Jackson Archer in the country. And the TV series of The Dresden Files had to change Chicago Detective Karrin Murphy's name to Connie Murphy because there was a real Chicago detective named Karen Murphy (although that wasn't a problem for the books, probably because there's a lot less money and awareness involved and thus less risk of costly lawsuits). But TNG and DS9 were able to have a character named Miles O'Brien even though there was a CNN reporter named Miles O'Brien, because it was a common enough name and they were in different enough professions that it wouldn't be taken as a reference to that specific person.

Actually the lamp smoking in Amok Time is not the biggest error in that episode--in fact it could have caufght fire in the actual Star trek 'reality'.

The biggest error in the episode is when Spock is 'deep in the Plaktow with his fingers interlocked and him in a trance-like state and then they cut to a long shot where Nimoy didn't know he was in the camera frame when they were shooting some Kirk/T'Pau shots and he is casually leaning against the rock formation----clearly not in the "Plaktow."

Actually the lamp smoking in Amok Time is not the biggest error in that episode--in fact it could have caufght fire in the actual Star trek 'reality'.

The biggest error in the episode is when Spock is 'deep in the Plaktow with his fingers interlocked and him in a trance-like state and then they cut to a long shot where Nimoy didn't know he was in the camera frame when they were shooting some Kirk/T'Pau shots and he is casually leaning against the rock formation----clearly not in the "Plaktow."